Durbin's outlook good after rare stomach tumor removed

August 12, 2010

Medical experts said the outlook appears good for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin after the Illinois Democrat on Thursday had a rare, though small, tumor removed from his stomach.

Durbin, 65, underwent minimally invasive surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center for removal of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor -- a mostly benign growth that, while highly curable, can go undetected for years and become malignant, according to medical experts.

The mass in Durbin's stomach had been spotted several weeks ago during a routine medical checkup in Washington, the senator's spokesman Joe Shoemaker said.

The tumor was removed completely and a preliminary biopsy gave a favorable prognosis, Shoemaker said. He added that Durbin, the assistant Senate majority leader, may be released from the hospital Friday.

"Sen. Durbin went through ... surgery with flying colors" and should resume a full schedule "as soon as next week," Shoemaker said. The U.S. Senate is currently in August recess.

Before the tumor was detected in a CT scan taken during a routine exam, Durbin showed no symptoms of a growth in his stomach, Shoemaker said.

The aide said he did not know the exact size of the tumor, and that a final biopsy wouldn't be available for a week or so.

U of C hospital officials declined to comment on the surgery. But, Shoemaker said doctors do not expect Durbin to require more treatment.

Medical experts from other hospitals agreed that the senator is out of danger.

"A lot of these small tumors, with a low number of dividing cells, will behave in a benign way, and we cut them out and they never come back," said Dr. Mary Mulcahy, who specializes in gastrointestinal cancers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Durbin, at his age, is "about average" for the onset of such tumors, Mulcahy said.

Some people walk around with small gastrointestinal stromal tumors for years without symptoms, she said. Sometimes they're found by accident, such as when a patient being evaluated for a kidney stone undergoes a CT scan.

If Durbin's proves to be a low-risk tumor, there may be no special monitoring done beyond a physical exam and "maybe a CT scan at some point," Mulcahy said.

The tumors are rare, with about 4,500 to 6,000 cases a year in the U.S., said Dr. Sohrab Mobarhan, a gastroenterologist at Rush University Medical Center. The tumors can originate in the stomach, small intestine, colon, rectum or outside the gastrointestinal tract but inside the abdomen, she said.

Some patients experience bleeding or a feeling of pressure or pain, he said.

Mobarhan called Durbin "lucky."

"If you are lucky, they find a tiny little tumor and they remove it and that's it," he said.